Holderby Hall may appear to just be brick and mortar, but it was once the place where strangers became family. 

The year was 1982, and Bill Gardner was moving into Holderby Hall.

With his dormitory standing nine stories tall, the now assistant professor and undergraduate program coordinator of Marshall’s cyber forensics and security program thought he had made it to the big city. 

“I’m from Richwood, West Virginia, and we did not have any tall buildings,” Gardner said. “It was overwhelming to think that I was going to live in a very tall building with elevators.” 

Gardner said the elevators in Holderby Hall have definitely caused a nightmare or two. 

“The elevator stopped working, and I had to walk up and down eight flights of stairs,” Gardner said. “That’s still a dream or a nightmare that I have every once in a while.”

When the elevators were in perfect condition, however, Gardner said the hall’s stair alternatives were used for movie screenings. 

“We used to hang a sheet over the elevator door and have movie weekends,” Gardner said. “We would all sit in the hallway with popcorn and then if anyone rode the elevator, we would yell at them for interrupting our movie.”

When Gardner and his friends weren’t enjoying Marx Brothers movies, he said the various floors in the dorm enjoyed friendly competition in the form of intramural football. 

In terms of amenities, Gardner said Holderby’s ninth floor payphone was vital. 

“I’d have to use one of the dimes I was going to use to do laundry with in order to call my mother,” Gardner said. “Payphones were sort of the communication networks of the day.”

Communication has certainly advanced past payphones, as Gardner said he keeps in touch with Holderby friends through a private Facebook group.

“To this day I have very close friends,” Gardner said. “My roommate one year became an Episcopal priest, and I keep up with him on Facebook and watch his services on YouTube because we still have that connection after all these years.

Fast forward 24 years, Tawna Morris, an executive administrator in Columbus, was beginning her junior year in Holderby Hall in 2006.

Morris said the co-ed dorm possessed a friendly atmosphere that translated in her relationships with the residents. 

“There were always late night gaming sessions in the lobby,” Morris said. “We played a lot of board games, like Catchphrase or Risk, and the Risk matches would last all night.”

Specifically, Morris said Holderby’s outdoor seating was the catalyst for perfect college moments. 

“The bench out front is where we solved all the problems of the world,” Morris said. “Way late into the evening, everybody ended up out there on those benches, hanging out for hours talking.”

When the hangout moved indoors, Morris said the building’s lack of air-conditioning led to quick bonding. 

“You learned to be really comfortable with everybody really quickly,” Morris said. “It was just a really interesting mix of people.”

Morris said she was particularly thankful for the Holderby camaraderie when her shower was interrupted by the fire alarm one evening. 

“It was February, and I’m in my towel outside waiting for us to get the clearance to go back in,” Morris said. “Some gentleman I didn’t even know gave me his coat to wear and told me to drop it by his room number.” 

In addition to the familial atmosphere, Morris said she lived in Holderby throughout the filming of ‘We Are Marshall,’ which turned out to be a locally iconic experience. 

“Holderby, at the time of the movie, was a male dorm, and most of us had pink curtains,” Morris said. “They wanted us to close our blinds, and they had signs hanging out of people’s dorms with anti-war slogans.”

Like Gardner, Morris said her time at Holderby produced lifelong friends. 

“I have someone who was a bridesmaid at my wedding and a male friend of mine who was my best male friend through college at my wedding,” Morris said. “We’re still talking to this day and it’s been 20 years.”

A short four years later, Rachel Ford, who currently works as a marketing copywriter, called Holderby her home in 2010. 

Ford said moving into a building with no air conditioning in the middle of August made for a rough combination. 

“It was sweltering ‘cause you are going up and down an elevator when there’s absolutely no air conditioning, and everyone had these huge box fans,” Ford said. 

Despite the lack of cool air, Ford said Holderby had a welcoming atmosphere due to the unspoken “open-door policy,” in relation to the dorm’s single rooms. 

“That’s how people would become friends with their neighbors or floor mates,” Ford said. “You would always just walk by and say hello to people when they were in their room.”

In terms of closeness, Ford said unique favors transcended levels of friendships. 

“One time I was walking back to my room and a couple of girls had their doors open and asked me to come walk on their backs to pop them,” Ford said. “I wasn’t really friends with them, but it felt that way because everyone was always passing through.”

This atmosphere among the residents encouraged Ford to come out of her shell and talk with a variety of people. 

“I usually would have stayed in my own bubble with people I already knew but the open doors with people always around helped,” Ford said. “We were always popping in asking if anyone needed anything, offering small favors and those times helped with my college experience and beyond.”

Four years later in 2014, Makala Gilkerson, a teacher at Tolsia High School, moved into Holderby, where she spent her sophomore and junior year with her friends in the dorm. 

“We would pick somebody’s dorm to meet up in every weekend, and we would go down to the kitchen and somebody would cook,” Gilkerson said. “We would just have our little dinners and hang out.”

Gilkerson said that despite the lack of air conditioning, she appreciated the building for the single rooms. 

“I went in with low expectations, and it had its own little character,” Gilkerson said. “You could do whatever you wanted to in your room and make it your own, which I felt was a lot more personal than the other dorms.”

A desk assistant in the first-year dorms, Gilkerson said she preferred Holderby’s design. 

“I feel like it was a lot more homier than the newness and the modernness of some of the other dorms,” Gilkerson said.

Gilkerson said she only lived in Holderby for a year and a half, and her only college regret is not moving onto campus sooner. 

“Everybody’s always so eager to live on their own that they don’t cherish that time you have living right there with 100 of your friends,” Gilkerson said. “I should have moved to campus sooner and stayed there longer.”

Currently, the Holderby Hall that housed Gardner, Morris, Ford, Gilkerson and thousands of other students over the years is being demolished. 

While the building’s structure now lays in rubble alongside the Fifth Avenue sidewalk, the foundation that built unbreakable friendships and propelled college experiences will always remain. 

Kaitlyn Fleming can be contacted at [email protected].